Probably the first disposable lighter for items containing tobacco was a twig which was placed into a fire and then the resulting flame was brought to the cigarette. In between matches were developed which were in a sense disposable lighters in that once they had been struck and a fire caused they were then extinguished and disposed of. Subsequently, through the ingenuity of man came a lighter which was in a sense was partially disposable in that it was filled with a flamable liquid which could be ignited by a spark. There were also lighters which contained a fluid and a grid which could be heated when air was drawn through the lighter to cause the grid to become incandescent and subsequently light the tobacco item with which it was being used. By in large, most lighters relied on a fuel system which in a sense was not disposable in the fact that the lighter case need not be thrown away. It could be reactivated by the insertion of additional fuel. The advent of the butane fuel disposable lighter brought about considerable change in the field of ignition devices for tobacco products of the cigarette and cigar type. With the butane fuel device, when the butane fuel was exhausted, the lighter was then disposed of. There have been attempts to provide other means of fueling lighters such as with batteries which would be replaced and then the lighter would continue to be useful.
The battery activated lighter was in a sense a partially disposable lighter in that the battery of course could be disposed of. The other liquid fuel lighters of a disposable nature could be classified as those in which the fuel was replaced or those in which the lighter was disposed of after the fuel that was in the lighter as purchased was exhausted. All the foregoing lighters required the activation of flame in order to ignite the tobacco product to which the lighter had been applied. The fueled lighters were susceptible, as might well be expected, to being ignited by children and as a result accidentally induced fires within a home could be easily produced by the mere fact that the flame was present which could ignite any material which was in reasonably close contact therewith.